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Microsoft Office icons redesign could be start of a design era

Posted on Saturday, December 01, 2018 by Norman Carr

Microsoft Office icons redesign could be start of a design era

The icon redesign is meant to reflect the simplicity, versatility and connectivity of Office 365, the company said.

Microsoft has given the icon for its Office family of apps a whole new, fresh and modern look, and they are very proud of it. Other Microsoft apps like Skype, Teams and Outlook are getting updated too.

The icons have been "evolved" to reflect the significant changes that have been made to Office, said John Friedman, head of Office design, in a blog post.

"From the get-go, we embraced Office's rich history and used it to inform design decisions. While each icon has a unique and identifiable symbol, there are connections within each app's symbol and the collective suite". Traditionally, the letter occupied two-thirds of the icon, and the symbol took up one-third.

The new app icon designs certainly look more modern, but still retain their familiarity. The letter representing each Office program has also been downsized. The letters that Microsoft uses for its Office apps are still there, but the background has been changed to something simpler - geometric shapes associated with the apps. Microsoft Office, which was available only on Windows and Mac initially is now also available on mobile platforms such as Android and iOS as well.

There's no denying that the Office suite of apps is Microsoft's most important product, even more critical for the success of the company than Windows.

"Our design solution was to de-couple the letter and the symbol from the icons, essentially creating two panels (one for the letter and one for the symbol) that we can pair or separate".

It's also unclear when these icons are going to be rolling out. Microsoft will be updating and modernizing the look and feel on each of the platforms Office resides on.

According to The Verge, Outlook for mobile will be getting an update soon, so maybe it will feature elements of this new design.

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